Learn The Shocking Reliability Tests That Your Phone Withstood

All manufactured products go through a series of quality control tests to determine if their design and composition can withstand various conditions. This is to ensure that only the best is released to the market.

The mobile phone you have in your hand has been guaranteed by the manufacturer to last for many years provided it’s properly handled. This means that as long as you don’t subject it to extreme wear and tear, then it can last for a very long time. However, do you know that your phone went through exactly the same extreme condition before it landed in your hand?

It’s All About Quality

For consumer electronic products, each part is examined by quality assurance personnel to ensure that it is up to specifications. The slightest defect or imperfection is enough reason for that part to be thrown away. In cases where the part is deemed too expensive to be thrown away, or if the defect can be repaired, it is sent to a section to be reworked on. However, the reworked part will never end up with products that are classified as top quality.

A Test Only Quality Control Personnel Can Love

After assembling the parts, the semi-finished product is sent to another series of tests. One of these is accelerated reliability testing where the product is subjected to extreme conditions. According to Science Direct, this test is critical in the evaluation of the assembled product. In the case of your phone, the finished main board, complete with its relay switches, capacitors, cellular daughterboard and other components is placed on a vibration system. This is where your phone experience merciless shaking to see which of the components fails.

The XYZ Vibration

Most manufacturers use repetitive shock vibration systems that deliver violent shocks simultaneously over an extensive frequency range to all three axes. This test simulates different wear and tear conditions that can be experienced by your phone over a period of time, although in an accelerated manner. This way, defective or weak components can immediately be detected and corrective steps are then applied in the production stage.

It’s amazing how your phone was able to survive the extreme conditions it went through during the test phase. Many phone manufacturers do this because the phones they produce carry their very names. If their product fails, then it ultimately affects their brand, such as in the case of a report featured in Fortune Magazine about the possible quality testing lapse. Although reliability testing can sometimes take time, it is necessary to prevent correctable defects.